Complex game for a 53 year old.

[Dura_Ace]

Ive never played any of these types of games. Meaning minecraft and the base building games.

My thing is combat flight sims and i played WoW for a number of years.

Most of the frustrations are not knowing the right buttons to push. How to drop stuff in your hands and how to make stuff quickly as time seems to be a factor here. I feel pressured to do stuff fast for some reason and as a noob this is not going well.

I hope success does not come down to how fast you can make stuff cos that is me done if so, i am slow. I am not going to spend the next few years learning the interface so i can do this blind and in milliseconds like kids do theses days.

Ive managed to build the first axe but i dont think a controller is the way to go for me. I dont know yet. Not found food yet. Not found water yet.

[felixpoop]

I just started, too, and I'm 56. This is also my first base-building survival mechanics game. I have no idea if time is a factor, but it didn't feel to me that it was, in the beginning anyway, so-not yet, anyway. I'm not much farther than you. I think it's okay to take your time, learn the rhythm of the game - it may be that only battles really require fast action. Good luck.

[=jF=]

If you actually have choice between a controller and a mouse/keyboard, go with the later. It make it much easier even if it seem more complex to learn all the shortcut.

For food press B and build the campfire and then you can kill the weevil or aphid and cook their meat. For water you will find bubble of water on the grass stack. You can hit the grass to make them fall. You can use the top of the baseball ball as a safe place to build your bed and campfire.

Those three thing should get you at least started.

[Ensign Toby]

Firstly, Get OFF MY LAWN you Young Whippersnappers...
--------
Survival Games (such as Grounded) are notoriously "difficult" in the earliest phases.
Mainly, because you are trying, you know, not to DIE a Horrible 'n Nasty Death.

The "good news" is there is no long-term penalty for dying in Grounded.
It doesn't impact your achievements, or your game completion scorecard.

All Survival style games try to kill you by:
* Dehydration
Solution: Find/Drink Water or other Fluids
* Starvation
Solution: Find/Consume (and eventually Cook) Items to Eat

FYI: Keep a Constant Watch on your Health Meters; don't let 'em run out or you Die.
Keep a supply of Food/Water on-hand Always (you can eventually craft containers).

* Environment
Solution: Pay attention to pop-ups and Status Bars and get the Heck outta Hostile Areas
* Fauna (and occasionally Flora)
Solution: Sneak around and/or avoid Enemies until you are ready to deal with 'em.
If you can out-run them (difficult in early game), Bugs patrol an area and are avoidable.

Your first priorities (in order) are:
* Water
Look for dew drops in the grass (Interact/Use with 'E').
* Food
Look for consumable flora/fauna (see item descriptions); some aren't too good for ya.
* Gather Resources
Basically, pick up EVERYTHING you can get your grubby little hands on (at first)
* Create a Weapon
That ax will do for now

* Create a Base of Operations
It doesn't have to be fancy, just a safe place to keep your stuff and craft items.
Hint: Build in an Elevated Location (Baseball/Boulder) where you JUMP to your entrance.

* Upgrade Armor/Weapons/Yourself as soon as upgrades become available

The choice of Keyboard/Mouse (my favorite) or Controller is a Religious Discussion...
Pick whichever you like and stick with it - it's less confusing to only learn one input set.

Suggestions:
* Watch some Beginner YouTube Videos on Grounded as soon as possible
There are loads out there; I like the creators Laggin24x and CDiinky.
* Find Food/Water ASAP!!!
* Learn the Interface while avoiding combat as much as possible
Trying to do this during combat is frustrating and only Feeds the Bugs.

* Combat eventually gets pretty hard (esp. for the Bosses), but they are a long way off.
You will have hundreds of battles under your belt by the time you get to those Bosses.

* You can change the Game Difficulty (Mild, Medium, Whoa!) without penalty any time
If you are having a difficult time with a Fight/Boss/Area, change the Difficulty to Mild.

* You can make the Bugs non-hostile in a Custom Game, but where's the Fun in That.
Important:
Changing to Custom Game, however, disables all achievements for that play through.
--------
Good Luck, and Tell the Spiders I Said "Hi". :D

[Dura_Ace]

Thanks for the tips. Ive got a few hours in now and am starting to get the hang of things. My new frustrations are not knowing where i can build things and placing a ton of those blue things that i have to del after.

So now ive got the level 1 axe, basher and spear. Ive been to the oak lab and unlocked a fair amount of recipes. Raw science that i got from examining things let me buy some cooking recipes at the lab.

Finding food and water was a real issue at the start after initial mushrooms/water ran out. I had to venture out to find stuff. This led me to more area's and things to bring back to examine.

I am not fighting anything yet and running every time. That running away works is very nice indeed. In WoW the crap chances your hide for half the map and along the way you pull anything and everything that is there as well so you are running nonstop and end up miles away.

I ditched the controller. Too slow.

I dont like spiders so have the mode on but am curious as to how they look. Ive seen videos of the spiders and that does not bother me. The anti spider mode is two green round balls and they blend in too much so might have to turn spiders on. I dont want to dream about damn spiders though. oh well.

I am having a grand time.

[Humpenstilzchen]

Originally posted by Dura_Ace:

I am not fighting anything yet and running every time. That running away works is very nice indeed.

You´l have to murder stuff if you want to progress any further. Reason is in order to farm higher tier resources you need higher tier tools which means you also need higher tier weapons so you can fight stronger bugs since many tools and weapons are made from their bodyparts .

For now I´d recommend hunting down stinkbugs and bombardier beetles to get a better axe and hammer which will allow you to get new resources.

[pcdeltalink]

Originally posted by Dura_Ace:

I ditched the controller. Too slow.

As someone who is using controller with no issues on Whoa I find this statement absolutely hilarious.

[Pigeon Chest]

Originally posted by Dura_Ace:

Ive never played any of these types of games. Meaning minecraft and the base building games.

My thing is combat flight sims and i played WoW for a number of years.

Most of the frustrations are not knowing the right buttons to push. How to drop stuff in your hands and how to make stuff quickly as time seems to be a factor here. I feel pressured to do stuff fast for some reason and as a noob this is not going well.

I hope success does not come down to how fast you can make stuff cos that is me done if so, i am slow. I am not going to spend the next few years learning the interface so i can do this blind and in milliseconds like kids do theses days.

Ive managed to build the first axe but i dont think a controller is the way to go for me. I dont know yet. Not found food yet. Not found water yet.

I find that food and water right off the bat is a concern, but the entire game waits for you my friend.

Do not worry about going fast, if you avoid huge conflict while gaining certain supplies you'll avoid any forced revenge waves.

I spent about 30-50 hours preparing my character and collecting supplies before I went into my first ant hill.

I would recommend collecting the teeth vitamins so your character can upgrade, eventually you'll be comfortable enough to upgrade your thirst and hunger drain.

TIP: Build The Web Dream Catchers that harvest water for free, it creates water and holds water forever; with 2 Web structures per person avoiding all need for water.

[Dura_Ace]

Originally posted by pcdeltalink:

Originally posted by Dura_Ace:

I ditched the controller. Too slow.

As someone who is using controller with no issues on Whoa I find this statement absolutely hilarious.

I did not mess with the curves. The controller is too slow and inaccurate, for me. For me. Others disagree with it, fine. I am far more accurate with a mouse. So mouse and keyboard work for me. Ive not used a controller since the mid to late 90's on my playstation.

Fun game though.

[Accel Lex]

Originally posted by Dura_Ace:

Originally posted by pcdeltalink:

As someone who is using controller with no issues on Whoa I find this statement absolutely hilarious.

I did not mess with the curves. The controller is too slow and inaccurate, for me. For me. Others disagree with it, fine. I am far more accurate with a mouse. So mouse and keyboard work for me. Ive not used a controller since the mid to late 90's on my playstation.

Fun game though.

I'm the opposite. Controllers (unless fighter game) feel limiting compared to keyboard/mouse. I like being able to customize the keys to what I want. But if the game doesn't allow it, then I feel as restricted, if not more, to a controller.

[Accel Lex]

If you have trouble learning the buttons, customize them to what you instinctively would have an easier time with, compared to having to memorize them.
Then just switch the keys you need but forget when they come up.
Like if you need to pick up and drop stuff and throw but forget the keys, put them near each other from the pick up button to make it a side by side button motion.
I'm not sure if that'd be easier compared to remembering them, but it helps for me.

[Dura_Ace]

Originally posted by Accel Lex:

If you have trouble learning the buttons, customize them to what you instinctively would have an easier time with, compared to having to memorize them.
Then just switch the keys you need but forget when they come up.
Like if you need to pick up and drop stuff and throw but forget the keys, put them near each other from the pick up button to make it a side by side button motion.
I'm not sure if that'd be easier compared to remembering them, but it helps for me.

Any suggestions for the peeping action? The x followed by the E is awkward on a keyboard. I want to move the peeping towards middle mouse button if i can but dont know if i cant do that since peeping is a two button action. I supposed i could just go and do it and see wha thappens.

[Humpenstilzchen]

Originally posted by Dura_Ace:

Originally posted by Accel Lex:

If you have trouble learning the buttons, customize them to what you instinctively would have an easier time with, compared to having to memorize them.
Then just switch the keys you need but forget when they come up.
Like if you need to pick up and drop stuff and throw but forget the keys, put them near each other from the pick up button to make it a side by side button motion.
I'm not sure if that'd be easier compared to remembering them, but it helps for me.

Any suggestions for the peeping action? The x followed by the E is awkward on a keyboard. I want to move the peeping towards middle mouse button if i can but dont know if i cant do that since peeping is a two button action. I supposed i could just go and do it and see wha thappens.

It works. I have put it on one of the thumb buttons of my mouse and it works very well and is much more convenient.