My little rant on the issues I have with Chapter 2 currently <3

Hey all! I wanted to say before I complain about Chapter 2 that I still think Chapter 2 as a whole is amazing. I have not gotten to the end >!I have only gotten to the plasma drill so far!<

So I want to talk about what my impressions are on the Graphics, the new mechanics, and the content ive experienced so far.

Ive got only 576 hours total in the game but I have been here pretty much since the launch of the game playing it and enjoying it.

Graphics

I do love the new graphics and I feel that in many places it looks great. But in other places it looks.. odd?

I feel that the game before was much darker and more raw, and with the update everything is brighter and more.. modern? But not in the good kind of modern I feel. I think that the glass looks okay, but it just feels way too solid to be actual glass compared to before. The blur in the distance whilst it does give some better immersion of sorts, turning it off makes everything choppy ahead which is probably why that exists in the first place but- with the new graphics I feel like its worse now than it was before without the distance blur.

The Lighting I love quite a lot and have found myself sometimes enjoying the view, however I feel like in this game the views werent so beautiful that you could stare at them for long periods.

I generally feel that the Graphics whilst "better" in some ways, didnt meet expectations I expected from the 6 year development.

Mechanics

So ive got some good to say about it. I love the change in how raids work, I love the change in drop pods flying in and dropping down bots onto my farm.

I found it cool how they changed the progression from it being carrots, tomatoes, and beets at the beginning to Potatoes -> Tomatoes -> Carrots -> Beets -> Bananas (and so on)

I love that we get early spud guns whilst it is a pretty bad shot, I really like have the early game with a ranged weapon.

The changed to the bots requiring only T2 Metal instead of higher levels (that I can even craft yet) is amazing!

The story so far has been pretty cool and fun and I hope it continues to be exciting.

-

Now for the bad parts.

Grow Labs

Im concerned that the Grow Labs, whilst cool that they unlock new crops around the world. I have a hard time believing that they are only going to be used as gates to new crops and would like them to have more to them so we want to go back to them, or find more of them like warehouses.

Now there is 3 issues I have with them the most.
1, they are entirely story driven
2, between saves they are the same on the inside
3, they house specific blueprints you cant get anywhere else

I knew they said they were going to add story and I get being able to obtain specific things from the story but, none of the things ive obtains (other than the plasma drill so far) are what I would even imagine to be important for the story.

In the first grow lab I found a net block blueprint set and the large chest blueprint.

The block blueprint set I havent seen anywhere else yet so it felt off that it just existed in just the first lab.
You also have the Large Chest which is a very important blueprint that definitely makes you want to go there to obtain it but.. why in the grow lab? Why is the Large Chest recipe tied to the story? I felt like there could have been more to it like how you can trade crops for blueprints from the farmers. Obtain the ability to get tomatoes, give them more tomatoes so you can unlock the large chest blueprint. Then its not connected to the story and gives a greater use to farming

The fact that the grow labs so far have been all story driven it felt like it was less of the old survival where the game didnt push you in any direction and you could just explore and advance.

I am perfectly fine with the story in how we go into a warehouse to find the one guy but thats only one warehouse, every single grow lab IS part of the story and you cant continue or explore it without the key and the key isnt in a giant farm bot, its in a random bot you fight that just drops the key when you progressed far enough in the story.

I would have personally preferred either more blueprints in the hideout OR having a new bot to research some building recipes with the new schematic boxes. I could imagine deciding whether I want 3 random blueprints I havent scanned yet, or use all 3 to get a Large Chest.

Cook Bot

Whilst I ADORE the Cook bot I hate that when looking at the burgers that there isnt any new recipes for food.

Then looking at them say that they give a "random buff" felt wrong to me.

Why did we need a random buff when we could have gotten more dishes with distinct buffs, promoting you to grow more crops of dangerous varieties.
Now as far as I know (spoiler for those who dont want to know about items in chapter 2)

!I didnt see any new consumables added in creative move, it was just the burgers and baguettes!<

I feel like we could have had the pizza burgers give a max hp bonus

the vegetable burger giving a running bonus, or attack swing speed bonus

We literally only use 4 out the 10 crops in the game to make food

also include Woc Meat for pizza burgers and baguettes.

I would have loved to see stuff like banana smoothies or Woc Chili to have a bunch of different buffs so it was and incentive to go out of our way to make them instead of just deciding if we want to kill wocs or not.

Trash Bot

Now I havent gotten to far so I dont know if the trashbot occurs again but I felt like whilst it was a cool fight, all that it was is a way to get a new NPC and nothing more. I didnt get anything for beating it

Seeker bot

I feel part of me was okay with the harsh lesson it teaches after the first grow lab but, I do think it was a bit uncalled for. Especially for anyone who doesnt immediately for after the story.

I could see people quitting the game because they built a whole base not realizing the future danger that they will experience.

In my experience, me and my friend decided to base next to water and a road to have easy access but when we saw the giant bot in the sky start raining rockets down, blowing up our entire base. We were just lost for words. Wood was on fire, all the blocks were were saving to research were gone and we eventually got everything moved again to a location further away.

My problem isnt that it was destructive, my problem was that it wasnt explained or expressed that a giant bot flies over the roads and launches missles at anything that breathes and isnt attached to the ground.

If it warned people that the seeker bot does that, or showed a cut scene of the seekerbot detecting a building and blowing it up, that would have been enough proof for me to believe that we needed to move.

New bots

So far ive encountered the new bubble tape bots, the paint bot, the water drill bot, and the jumpy press bot.

I like the ranged bots because they fit well as variants for a much more difficult enemy.

Now my only complaint for the drill bot and jumping bot is that they both sound like tote bots!

Now I know they are technically tote bots, but it would have been cool if we had special noises for them too that are semi related to their heads noise.

Anyways, I would say lots of this is nit picky or general worries for the future of me playing and I hope that what I feel or worry about is either nothing or my opinions change. But for now, this is all my current thoughts! <3